What Is Craft Beer And Everything You Need To Know

Craft beer is all about ingredients, character, territory, and creativity. Landed in Spain just two decades ago, it has become a mass phenomenon and a new way of conceiving beer. Today, we delve into everything that gives it personality and differentiates it from the industrial beer we were used to.

What is craft beer?

Craft beer is beer that has been made with water, yeast, hops, either in flower or pellet form, and cereals, with malted barley being the preferred option. In addition, to be considered as such, it must not have been stabilized by microfiltration or pasteurization.

Now, is it that simple? Guillem Laporta, president of DO Sants, regent of Homo Sibaris, and creator of DO Sants beer, wonders where the limits of craft beer begin and end. He himself, as a brewer and direct witness of its expansion in Catalonia, says: “It is easy to say that Estrella Damm or Mahou are industrial and that Agullons or Mosca de Girona are artisanal, but from there it becomes increasingly difficult to discern the limits.” An example: “There are beers that we could say are artisanal but that have some additions such as biscuits or marshmallows, what does that make them?” While creative ingenuity leads professionals to reflect on the limits of craft beer, its origins, and certain characteristics seem to remain common to all of them.

Origin and history of craft beer

Barley in a jar, no less than 5,000 years old, was found in Godin Tepe, Iran. That’s how old beer is known to the world, and that’s without counting its appearance on tablets and iconography that would take us back a few thousand years. In fact, poor thing, in the history of beer it is believed that, along with bread, they were major reasons for human settlement.

What can we say, what we know is that we were already very far from nomadism when its artisanal version appeared in the USA. It happened about forty years ago and made the jump to Europe only twenty years ago. Craft beer arrived on the peninsula thanks to Steve Huxley, originally from Liverpool and owner of the first brewpub in Catalonia located in the Gracia neighborhood of Barcelona.

Guillem tells us that this bar, along with the Jazz Brewery on Magallanes Street, was the spark needed to create the Humulus Lupulus Beer Culture Association in 1998: “Thousands of people visited the Association and it was the embryo of projects such as the Cerveteca, the first establishment specialising exclusively in craft beer in all of Spain, the Barcelona Beer Festival, the Montseny beer company, la Mosca, as well as Agullons.” He says that thanks to this Poble-sec location, a second, and apparently definitive, wave of promotion of craft beer took place, which would have been key to its establishment in the country.

Characteristics of a Craft Beer

The best-known characteristics of craft beer are its small-scale production, its local brewing, and the great variety of resulting flavours. However, even though it is a unique part, these attributes have also evolved with it. It is no longer unusual to find craft breweries that have increased their production and others that have made the leap to the international market.

Something different happens with the great variety of flavours that not only persists but increases. The reason is found among its ingredients, the creator of Homo Sibaris explains it to us by comparing the process of making wine and beer. While grapes are the main ingredient in wine, and the must is extracted from them, in the case of beer at least two ingredients are required: malted barley, or another cereal, and hops. Both ingredients can be presented in different formats, they can come from different origins and in turn, each of their varieties can be combined with each other. This creative margin is a distinctive feature and the main reason why such a marked diversity can be found among craft beers.

Differences between craft and industrial beer

When differentiating between craft beer and industrial beer, the factors to take into account are the ingredients and the production method. Both beers mainly have four ingredients, which correspond to those of the German Purity Law of 1516: malt, hops, water and yeast, which, depending on their type, give rise to multiple combinations, although in reality the ingredients that can or cannot be added in Spain are governed by Royal Decree 678/2016.

In any case, the quality and quantity of ingredients used differ between industrial and craft beer. Craft beer stands out for its higher-quality ingredients and the preferential use of malted barley as the preferred cereal. On the other hand, industrial beer is known for using lower quality ingredients and including additional ones such as corn or rice to economically increase the source of sugars in fermentation.

As for the production method, craft beer avoids using industrial production techniques such as filter presses or the use of concentrated musts and maintains a lower volume production than what we can expect from industrial beer.

Ingredients of craft beer vs industrial beer

Craft beer is distinguished by its use of four main ingredients: water, yeast, hops, and malted barley, although the type of cereal can vary depending on the hands of the artisan. In the case of industrial beer, other ingredients are used. On the one hand, cheaper sources are used to round out the amount of sugar, the most common being corn, rice or even syrup. On the other hand, in the brewing industry it is also common to use concentrated musts and dilute them to obtain a higher yield, a practice that is not considered part of artisanal brewing.

Furthermore, although the composition of beer always starts from the four ingredients listed in the German Law of 1516, malt, hops, yeast, and water, it is possible to find other added ingredients such as those mentioned in industrial beer, and elements as creative as coffee or flower extracts in craft beer.

Industrial beer brewing and production methods

Another difference between industrial beer and craft beer is the methods of brewing and production. Although, as we mentioned at the beginning, both aspects are constantly changing and transforming as the scope of craft beer grows. An example is the filter press, a method of pressing grain that seeks to extract the maximum possible sugars from the grain and is usually mainly used in industrial brewing.

For its part, the production volume is much higher in the case of industrial beer than in the case of craft beer, and the latter continues to have a local character and is more associated with the production territory.

How to make craft beer

According to Adelitas Cerveceras, a Mexican association of professional women in the world of independent beer, “making a craft beer is a complex process, but it always begins with choosing a style and ingredients, leading to the production of the wort (extract of the grain’s sugars) and adding the yeast for fermentation.” From there, they agree that each brewer chooses certain parameters in the process that generate unique beers.

For those who feel the call of craft brewing, you can start with the recipe and steps suggested in ” Homebrew: Master the Art of Brewing Your Own Beer ” by Greg Hughes to get started. Here is a summary of the highlights:

Craft beer recipe

The material is simpler than it might seem, except for one single piece. If we have a large pot, a thermometer, brewing yeast, malted barley, hops, water and bottles or barrels where we can store the beer, we will be very close to being able to get it. All we need is the airlock, a device that prevents any type of contamination during fermentation.

From there, we can follow a standard ratio principle to brew 1 liter of beer consisting of 200 grams of malted barley, two grams of hops, yeast, and 4-5 liters of water.

Brewing process and steps for craft beer

With all the materials and ingredients gathered, the preparation and steps to produce craft beer are as follows:

1. Mash: soak the malted barley in hot water in the large pot at about 65°C to extract the sugars. Stir and let it rest for an hour.
2. Filter: Next, we filter the mixture with a strainer, separating the solids from the malted barley and preserving the liquid part.
3. Boiling: Bring the filtered part to a boil, adding the hops and letting it boil for 60 or 90 minutes. This phase helps to sterilize and is the key phase for the aroma.
4. Cooling: Once the boiling time has finished, we must cool the mixture quickly. One way to do this is in a cold bath by placing the pot on ice. We should be able to reduce its temperature to approximately 25 ºC.
5. Ferment: When the ideal temperature has been reached, add the yeast and stir. Use the airlock and let the mixture ferment for a week or more, depending slightly on the result you are looking for.
6. Racking and carbonating: we rack the beer into a new container and proceed to distribute it into bottles where we can add a little sugar, which will help in a second fermentation generating carbonation. They will then be ready to be stored in a cool, dark place and consumed in one or two weeks.

Adelitas Cerveceras points out: “Cleanliness in the process requires all attention, that will determine the quality of the beer.”